How many people read Order of the Stick?

[Fan67]

Well, it took me 6 years after I started reading the comic to just make forum account.
Most of the time, by the moment I’d read new comic and went to the forums, you guys had already discussed everything and explained to readers like me. :)

[RickDaily12]

This thread is somehow both on-topic and off-topic in regards to the Order of the Stick, it's genuinely perplexing.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Sounds like business as usual for this place.

[rgrekejin]

Yeah, like, legitimately non-joking I can say I've seen maybe 100 people posting somewhat regularly here, and probably a quarter of them post enough that I can say I would be able to list their usernames (no, I'm not going to try to list them). Even if we only take the serious readers and say that number has been cut in half since then, the number is still less than 0.1% of the total readership.

For whatever it's worth, the forums used to be much more active than they currently are (or, at least, the Order of the Stick section did, since that's mostly the part I look at). In the late 2000s and early 2010s, a new post could fall all the way off the front page in less than a day, whereas, checking the front page now, only the top 5 posts have replies from within the last 24 hours. I'm not sure if there were more posters or if the ones that were here were just more active, or more likely some combination of the two. I'm not sure when exactly that changed (I took a fairly extended hiatus from the forums myself) and I wouldn't want to speculate on the reasons why it did, but I wouldn't be surprised if the post volume back then was an order of magnitude greater than it is now.

[Quartz]

For whatever it's worth, the forums used to be much more active than they currently are (or, at least, the Order of the Stick section did, since that's mostly the part I look at).

The Giant was putting out 2-3 strips per week rather than the 1-2 per fortnight we've had for a while.

[hroþila]

Also, message boards in general were a much more popular medium back then, and they didn't have to compete with reddit and Facebook.

[nespunkt]

Anecdata point: I tend to read the comic and then browse the forum when I feel like reading more OotS but there isn't any new strips. I made an account a few years ago but forgot what email address I used. And then I made this account, to ask some question, but when I was done making it the question was already answered. I've been lurking for at least ten years though, maybe more.

[trtl]

Really difficult to say (obviously) but I wonder what counts as a "reader"

I imagine he permanently loses some readers every time he goes on hiatus, (the less dedicated fans simply stop checking for updates and forget about it.)

[137beth]

Big assumptions that I don't just fake knowledge gleaned from the context I've gotten from reading the other five talk about it!

When it comes to free internet accounts, you never know if multiple accounts are secretly controlled by a single person. I have seen no evidence that there are more than two actual people using this forum: me and Peelee. All other accounts might just be Peelee's sockpuppets (of course I know I don't have any sockpuppet accounts!)

[Schroeswald]

When it comes to free internet accounts, you never know if multiple accounts are secretly controlled by a single person. I have seen no evidence that there are more than two actual people using this forum: me and Peelee. All other accounts might just be Peelee's sockpuppets (of course I know I don't have any sockpuppet accounts!)

How do you know that Peelee isn't one of their sock puppet's?

[PopeLinus1]

I read it fairly often, what does that put us at?

[Crusher]

I read it fairly often, what does that put us at?

9, I think.

[littlebum2002]

For all I know, every profile on this board except mine could be run by the same person. So I only see proof that 3 people read it: My daughter, me, and at least 1 other person on this forum.

[Peelee]

For all I know, every profile on this board except mine could be run by the same person. So I only see proof that 3 people read it: My daughter, me, and at least 1 other person on this forum.

Bold of you to assume your daughter isn't running all the profiles to provide you a new avenue if discourse.

[Schroeswald]

I can only know for sure one other person, who must really love fighting themself, because I have never managed to convince anyone to read this comic besides random strips I throw at them.

[hobo386]

Probably the best way to figure out is to take that 650k figure and compare the pageviews for a newish (lets say about 1 year old) forum thread to the pageviews for an average forum thread from that era. My suspicion is that readership is somewhat down (typically happens as things go on for decades), but no idea how much.

[137beth]

How do you know that Peelee isn't one of their sock puppet's?

Semantics: if one person controls every account (except mine), then any designation of one of their accounts as the "main" and the others as "sockpuppets" is arbitrary.

Of course, there also seem to be posts going up at all hours of the day. So, if there is only one other user on this forum, then either you never sleep, or you write posts in advance and use a script to automatically upload them at different times, creating the illusion that you are always online.

And, given the high volume of posts on this forum, you either write really fast, or at least some of your posts are procedurally generated.


....which, now that I think about it, is starting to sound a lot like Reddit's r/SubredditSimulator.

[Schroeswald]

Semantics: if one person controls every account (except mine), then any designation of one of their accounts as the "main" and the others as "sockpuppets" is arbitrary.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, my post was dumb and semantic, but on the other hand, you, are... 137ben, and that is a... dumb name?

Of course, there also seem to be posts going up at all hours of the day. So, if there is only one other user on this forum, then either you never sleep, or you write posts in advance and use a script to automatically upload them at different times, creating the illusion that you are always online.

And, given the high volume of posts on this forum, you either write really fast, or at least some of your posts are procedurally generated.


....which, now that I think about it, is starting to sound a lot like Reddit's r/SubredditSimulator.

I'm pretty sure considering that you are always arguing with yourself it's pretty easy to use scripts, you only have to worry about me butting in and generally I don't play too big of a role in the arguments.

[137beth]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, my post was dumb and semantic, but on the other hand, you, are... 137ben, and that is a... dumb name?

May I put this quote in my extended sig?

[Schroeswald]

May I put this quote in my extended sig?

Yes you can (also, I think this is my first post sigged, which feels nice).

[PopeLinus1]

I'm pretty sure considering that you are always arguing with yourself it's pretty easy to use scripts, you only have to worry about me butting in and generally I don't play too big of a role in the arguments.

Beep Boop Beep Boop

[NerdyKris]

Bold of you to assume your daughter isn't running all the profiles to provide you a new avenue if discourse.

Brigsby Bear anyone?

[Fincher]

The real question, however, is how much the forum is representative of the readership as a whole.

I have it on good authority that the general readership hates Vaarsuvius and Redcloak, thinks Miko Miyazaki should be the main character, and ships her with Belkar (it's called Milkar, or alternatively Belazaki).

[snowblizz]

I add my brilliance and wit all the time!

0 + 0 + 0 still = 0

[TaiLiu]

This thread is silly. Clearly OOTS has no readers, because nothing exists and ontological nihilism is true. All this talk about one or two or three readers is silly when the answer is obviously zero.

[PopeLinus1]

Population: None. Although you might see people from time to time, they are most likely products of your imagination. Simple mathematics tells us that the population of the Universe must be zero. Why? Well given that the volume of the universe is infinite there must be an infinite number of worlds. But not all of them are populated; therefore only a finite number are. Any finite number divided by infinity is zero, therefore the average population of the Universe is zero, and so the total population must be zero.

I agree with TaiLiu's assessment.

[rgrekejin]

Population: None. Although you might see people from time to time, they are most likely products of your imagination. Simple mathematics tells us that the population of the Universe must be zero. Why? Well given that the volume of the universe is infinite there must be an infinite number of worlds. But not all of them are populated; therefore only a finite number are. Any finite number divided by infinity is zero, therefore the average population of the Universe is zero, and so the total population must be zero.

I agree with TaiLiu's assessment.

Wait, that math doesn't work. If there's an infinite number of worlds, but not all of them are populated, it doesn't follow that therefore only a finite number are populated. If, say, 1 out of every 1,000,000 worlds is populated, but there's literally an infinite number of worlds, there would therefore be an infinite number of populated worlds as well, and the population of the universe is infinite. Therefore, the readership of OotS is infinite. QED.

[Peelee]

Wait, that math doesn't work. If there's an infinite number of worlds, but not all of them are populated, it doesn't follow that therefore only a finite number are populated. If, say, 1 out of every 1,000,000 worlds is populated, but there's literally an infinite number of worlds, there would therefore be an infinite number of populated worlds as well, and the population of the universe is infinite. Therefore, the readership of OotS is infinite. QED.

Wait, that math doesn't work. If the population of the universe is infinite, and the world wide web is only on one planet, then the readership of a comic on the world wide web must be finite. Any finite number divided by infinity is zero, therefore the average readership of the comic is zero, and so the total readership must be zero. QED.

[Fyraltari]

At this point I can't tell whether each of you is

A) Not getting that this is a H2G2 joke.

B) Not getting that it is a joke at all and the poor math is intentional.

B) Not getting that it is a joke and thinking the math is correct.

C) Getting that it is a joke and doubling down on the poor math.

D) Obi-Wan Kenobi.

E) Getting that it is a joke and thinking th emath is correct.

F) Any of the previous.

[Schroeswald]

The answer is D) Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I will not be taking questions at this time.Real Answer: I didn't get that the bad math was intentional, or that it was a reference, but I did understand it was a joke, which I'm not sure where it falls in those answers.